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John 21:15-19

John 21:15-19

John 21:15-19 is a passage from the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John. The verses describe a dialogue between Jesus and Simon Peter. Jesus asks Simon Peter three times if he loves him. Each time, Simon Peter replies that he does, and Jesus asks him to tend his flock. Jesus then tells Simon Peter the manner of his (Simon Peter's) death.

Text of the passage

Analysis and commentary

Simon Peter In verses 15 through 17, the author of John 21 was likely signifying Jesus' confirmation of Peter as leader of his church. Unlike the synoptic gospels, this passage is the only such passage in John. A secondary purpose of this passage may have been to symbolically wash Simon Peter of the stain of his repudiation; while Peter had earlier denied Yeshua (Jesus) three times before the crucifixion, here, he thrice affirms his belief. In the original Greek, Jesus uses different Greek words for love between verses 15 and 16 and verse 17. In verses 15 and 16 Jesus uses the word agápē, whereas in verse 17 he uses the word philía. Verse 18, as the author explicitly states, likely describes the crucifixion and death of Simon Peter. As the verse was most likely written after the death of Simon Peter, this verse is likely the oldest evidence that he was executed in Rome during the reign of the emperor Nero.

Usage

These verses are used as the Gospel reading at the funerals of Popes, as described in the Vatican's book of liturgical celebrations. They were read at the funeral of Pope John Paul II on April 8, 2005.

References

-
- [http://www.worldenglishbible.org/ World English Bible website]
- [http://www.ebible.org/bible/kjv/ King James Version text] Category:New Testament verses

John 21

John 21 contains the description of another post-Resurrection appearance in Galilee, which the text describes as the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples. In the course of the chapter, there is a miraculous catch of 153 fish, the confirmation of Peter's love for Jesus, a foretelling of Peter's death by crucifixion, and a comment about John's future.

Appendage

The text of the Gospel of John appears to reach a conclusion at the end of chapter 20, as the text summarises the many signs that Jesus performed for his followers, not all of which could be recorded in the Gospel. John 21 begins simply with After these things... (Greek: Μετὰ ταῦτα) and nonchalently recounts another appearance of Jesus, as if the conclusion at the end of the prior chapter hadn't been there - as if the text was going "...and they all lived happily ever after. The end. Anyway, back in galilee they ...". Therefore, most scholars of textual criticism hold that John 21 is a later addition to the work, normally called the Appendix to the Gospel by scholars. Various theories have been suggested as to why the chapter might have been added. Westcott stated, "It is impossible to suppose that it was the original design of the Evangelist to add the incidents of chapter 21 after the verses which form a solemn close of his record of the great history of the conflict of faith and unbelief in the life of Christ." One point of view is that the author simply decided to add an additional incident at some time after writing the book, but before final publication. The chapter does not fit in with the carefully planned scheme of the previous 20 chapters, which are otherwise balanced in style and discourse around a central chapter. It is thought that the chapter was added to explain the death of Peter, which was either an event not known about by the author, or that had not happened until some time after the original version of the Gospel was completed, or that the original author had not considered it important. Some consider that the addition is to emphasise the importance of Peter, whom the church orthodoxy, and specifically the papacy, considered their founder, against that of the unnamed beloved disciple. The Church Father Tertullian wrote, "And wherefore does this conclusion of the gospel affirm that these things were written unless it is that you might believe, it says, that Jesus Christ is the son of God?", which describes the end of Chapter 20, not Chapter 21. Thus many scholars hold that the book existed without the last chapter at that time. However, the Nestle-Aland critical text of the New Testament lists no surviving copies of the Gospel that omit this chapter. Further doubt on the last chapter is cast by differences of literary style, which is said to resemble the Gospel of Luke more closely than that of John, and theological orientation. In particular, this chapter is much more ecclesiastically oriented than the rest of the book, stressing the role of Peter as the shepherd. The description of the "beloved disciple's" (normally assumed to be John) fate is presented as an aside to Peter. Jesus says that it is not Peter's concern, even if Jesus should wish that that disciple remain alive until the end of time. The following verse clarifies that Jesus did not say "This disciple will not die", but that it was not Peter's affair to know. Many critics presume that this disciple must have died before the addition of the section.

The appendage's appendage

The chapter is closed by two verses that appear to be an even later addition, and seem to be an attempt to resolve the ambiguity over the prior comment about John and whether he would or wouldn't die, in a manner suitable to the church. The last two verses sit incongruously with the remainder of the chapter and seem to be written from a different point of view - referring to the author of the gospel (whoever it might be) in the 3rd person ("... for we know that what he [referring to the author of the gospel] says is true"). For this reason, the last two verses are known as "The Appendix to the Appendix". The statement within these two verses that "we know what he says is true" implies either that the writer of the verses is not the writer of the remainder, or that the writer perceives that there will be significant doubt about the authorship of the work (or the chapter), which is in itself an indicator that the work is not written by the claimed author. Those who doubt the authenticity of the Gospel might think that these last verses are an attempt to imply that authorship of the Gospel was by an apostle and eyewitness. This aims to make John's Gospel more important than the synoptic Gospels, of which only the Gospel of Matthew was considered an eyewitness report by the ancients. It also aims to support the Gospel's superiority where it conflicts with the others, thus serving any polemical or apologetic purpose that might have existed for writing the gospel.

Gospel of John

The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written. Like the other three gospels, it contains an account of the life of Jesus. The Church Fathers believed only The Gospel of John and The Gospel of Matthew to be written by apostles of Jesus. The Gospel of John is the most divergent of the four. While the "beloved disciple," who is traditionally identified as John the Apostle, has previously been regarded as the author, this is now disputed among scholars of the "Higher Criticism" based on historical context and close textual analysis.

Authorship and date

Main article: Authorship of the Johannine works Though John is agreed scholars place the gospel anywhere between AD 65 and 85, some scholars place the writing of the final edition of John later in the first or early second century. The text itself states only that the Fourth Gospel was written by an anonymous follower of Jesus referred to as the Beloved Disciple. Traditionally he was identified as John the Apostle, who was believed to have lived at the end of his life at Ephesus. The dating is important since John is agreed to be the last of the canonical Gospels to have been written and thus marks the end date of their composition. Scholarly research since the 19th century has questioned the apostle John's authorship, however, and has presented internal evidence that the work was written many decades after the events it describes. The text provides strong evidence that it was written after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and after the break between Christian Jews and Pauline Christianity. F.C. Baur asserted a date as late as 160. Today, most critical scholars are of the opinion that John was composed in stages (probably two or three), beginning at an unknown time (50-70?) and culminating in the final edition (Gospel of John) around 95-100. This final date is assumed in large part because John 21, the so-called "appendix" to John, is largely concerned with explaining the death of the "beloved disciple," probably the leader of the Johannine community that produced the gospel. If this leader had been a follower of Jesus, or a disciple of one of Jesus' followers, then a death around 90-100 is expected. This claim has been rejected by conservative scholars. Like the other gospels according to critical scholars, John was certainly based on previous texts that are now lost. The contemporary scholar of the Johannine community Raymond E. Brown identifies three layers of text in the Fourth Gospel (a situation that is paralleled by the synoptic gospels): an initial version Brown considers based on personal experience of Jesus, a structured literary creation by "the evangelist," which draws upon other sources, and the edited version that readers know today (Brown 1979). A fragmentary scrap of papyrus discovered in Egypt in 1920, now at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, accession number P52 (see link below), bears parts of John 18:31 - 33 on one side and 18:37 - 38 on the other. If it has been correctly dated in the first half of the second century (by C. F. Roberts), it ranks as the earliest known fragment of the New Testament in any language. Fuller details are at the entry on the Rylands Library Papyrus P52. Skepticism about the date (not about the fragment's authenticity) is based on two issues. First, no other scrap of Greek has ever been so narrowly dated based on the handwriting alone, without the support of textual evidence. Second, this fragment is not of a scroll but from a codex; a book not a roll. If it dates to the first half of the second century, this fragment would be an uncharacteristically early example of a codex, the form that superseded the scroll. Since this fragment is small—about nine by five centimeters— it is uncertain whether it comes from a full copy of the John that we know. Nevertheless, while some experts in paleography have objected to the dating, it is agreed that this piece of papyrus is the earliest text for any portion of the New Testament. Its closest rival in date is the Egerton Gospel, a mid-second-century fragment of a codex that records a gospel not identical to any of the canonical four, but which has closer parallels with John than with the synoptic gospels. Thus the Egerton Gospel may represent a less-developed example of the same tradition (though in a slightly later example). Brent Nongbri writes in the conclusion to the essay "The Use and Abuse of P52: Papyrological Pitfalls in the Dating of the Fourth Gospel" (Harvard Theological Review 98 [2005], page 48): "What emerges from this survey is nothing surprising to papyrologists: paleography is not the most effective method for dating texts, particularly those written in a literary hand. Roberts himself noted this point in his edition of P52. The real problem is the way scholars of the New Testament have used and abused papyrological evidence. I have not radically revised Roberts's work. I have not provided any third-century documentary papyri that are absolute "dead ringers" for the handwriting of P52, and even had I done so, that would not force us to date P52 at some exact point in the third century. Paleographic evidence does not work that way. What I have done is to show that any serious consideration of the window of possible dates for P52 must include dates in the later second and early third centuries. Thus, P52 cannot be used as evidence to silence other debates about the existence (or non-existence) of the Gospel of John in the first half of the second century. Only a papyrus containing an explicit date or one found in a clear archaeological stratigraphic context could do the work scholars want P52 to do. As it stands now, the papyrological evidence should take a second place to other forms of evidence in addressing debates about the dating of the Fourth Gospel." There are other theories of authorship. One of the most dramatic is the claim by Ramon K. Jusino that John was written by Mary Magdalene. [http://www.beloveddisciple.org/ "Mary Magdalene, author of the Fourth Gospel?'], 1998, available on-line.

Sources

A hypothesis elaborated by German bibilical scholar Rudolf Bultmann in Das Evangelium des Johannes, 1941 (translated as The Gospel of John: A Commentary, 1971), suggested that the author of John depended in part on an oral miracles tradition or a written manuscript of Christ's miracles that was independent of the synoptic gospels, whose authors did not use it. This has been labelled a "Signs Gospel" and alleged to have been circulating before AD 70: evidently it is lost. Even readers who doubt that such a document can be precisely identified have noticed the remnants of a numbering associated with some of the miracles that appear in the canonical Gospel of John. Textual critics have noted that, of the miracles that are mentioned only by John, all of them occur before John 12:37; that these "signs" are unusually dramatic; and that these "signs" (semeia is uniquely John's expression) are accomplished in order to call forth faith. These miracles are different, not only from the rest of the "signs" in John, but also from all of the miracles in the three synoptic gospels, which according to this interpretation occur as a result of faith. These characteristics may be independently assessed by a reader who returns to the text. One conclusion is that John was reinterpreting an early Hellenistic tradition of Jesus as a wonder-worker, the "magician" that would fit within the Hellenistic world view. These ideas were so hotly denied that heresy proceedings were instituted against Bultmann and his writings. (See more detailed discussions linked below.) Further arguments that Jesus is also known as a "Divine Man, Wonder-worker (One who is favored by the Gods), or even a Sorcerer" in the late 3rd and 4th centuries have also been given as an interpretation of the art portraying Jesus with a magic wand. Since this art exists only in the western part of the Roman Empire, it has been suggested this is a tie to Arianism. Peter is the only apostle, portrayed in early Christian art, who also carries a wand. These wands are thought to be symbols of power. This art, since its discovery, has not been kept in secret by the Catholic church.

Handling of source material

It is notable that the Gospel's opening prologue in John 1:1-18 consciously echoes the opening motif of the book of Genesis (Hebrew Bible). Beyond this clear emphasis, there has been much debate over the centuries as to the origin of the theological background of the prologue: is it a formula of Hellenistic rhetoric, traditional Jewish wisdom, or some type of Qumran-like Dead Sea scrolls metaphysic? By the beginning of the 21st century, the pendulum of scholarly opinion has swung back to a traditional Jewish background for the prologue. While Genesis 1 focuses on God's creation of the world, John 1 focuses on the Word (or Logos in the Greek) and all that the Word accomplished by coming into the world. The Johannine gospel identifies the Logos as Jesus. This internal contrast and comparison implies that John is in effect stating that Jesus is the Second Adam as described by Paul of Tarsus, the apostle. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45 states the First Adam of Genesis as a man who became "a living being", while the Second Adam (Jesus) is "a lifegiving spirit." Apparently with Paul's previously distributed epistle in mind, John aims not only to show Jesus as the Son of God but also to confound the Jews by superseding the incipit of their earliest historical book.

Structure

After the prologue (1:1-5), the narrative of this gospel begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (1:6-ch. 12) contains the story of Jesus' public ministry from the time of his baptismal initiation by John the Baptist to its close. The second part (ch. 13-21) presents Jesus in the retirement of private life and in his dialog with his immediate followers (13-17), and gives an account of his sufferings and crucifixion and of his appearances to the disciples after his resurrection (18-20). Chapter 21, the "appendix" recounting the death of the "beloved disciple," follows. The Gospel of John is easily distinguished from the three Synoptic Gospels, which share a more considerable amount of text and describe much more of Jesus' life. By contrast, the specific peculiarities of John are notable, especially in their effect on modern Christianity. John gives far more focus in his work to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father. As a Gospel writer, he essentially developed the concept of the Trinity while the Synoptic Gospels had focused less directly on Jesus as the Son of God. John makes far more direct claims of Jesus being the only Son of God in favour of Jesus as the Son of Man. The gospel also focuses on the relation of the Redeemer to believers, the announcement of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter (Greek Paraclete), and the prominence of love as an element in the Christian character.

Popular Passages in the Gospel

John 3:16 is one of the most widely known passages in the New Testament: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. According to the professional men's and Bible distribution society Gideons International, John 3:16 has been translated into more than 1,100 languages.

Characteristics of the Gospel of John

The Greek of this gospel is elegant, and its theology subtle and sophisticated, with many parallels in Hellenistic thought. Some of the passages in this book are alleged to be anti-Semitic, mainly due to the emphasis placed on the responsibility of the Jews (especially the Jewish leaders in Judea) for the Crucifixion. The Gospel uses the term "the Jews" to categorize some of Jesus' detractors. However, it is important to remember that the author was most likely Jewish himself, speaking to a largely Jewish community, and therefore we must be careful applying a 21st century language lens on a 1st century expression. Nonetheless, these passages were appropriated and used in negative ways by some Christian groups in certain periods of history to persecute Jewish people, being quoted to justify odium theologicum. Other critics read this shift of emphasis to the Jewish public enemies of the Roman imperium and away from the Roman authorities, who actually carried out the execution, as a technique of rendering a developing Christianity more palatable in official circles. It is because of this that some politically-correct English translations (like the controversial Today's New International Version) remove the term "Jews" and replace them with non-offensive terms so as to remove alleged anti-Semitism. Critics of these translations state that when John uses "Jews," he is not referring to all Jews (as John, Jesus and his disciples were all Jews) but to the Jewish leaders (the Sanhedrin) in Judea who openly oppose Jesus. These same critics argued that those people who believe that the Gospel of John is "anti-Semitic" failed to understand how the term "Jews" is actually used. Unlike the synoptic Gospels, elements of Gnosticism have been recognized by some readers in the Gospel of John though it is not generally regarded as a "Gnostic gospel". In order to find passages that refute Gnosticism—by stating that Christ is approachable even as Spirit—readers must turn instead to the First Epistle of John, in passages such as 1 Jn 2:1-2; 3:8,16 and 4:2,3. The earliest copies of the Gospel of John are also from Gnostic sources that include overtly Gnostic writings, implying that John was read by Gnostic groups. One school of interpretation distinguishes between "Johannine Christianity" and "Pauline Christianity". The gnosis in Gnosticism is secret information that is available only to initiates. In the Gnostic view, salvation comes through "knowledge" that Jesus is the Christ -- those who understand his true nature are saved, those who don't "stand condemned already." Though John is not a "secret" gospel—as other surviving apocryphal ("secret") gospels and fragments claim to be—the narrative is interrupted at an important turn of events just before the Crucifixion, for nearly five chapters (John 13–18) of private discourse and teachings that Jesus shares only with the disciples, the "farewell discourses", which are without parallel in the synoptic gospels, in their present version (but compare the Secret Gospel of Mark).

Other characteristics unique to John

- The Apostle Thomas is given a personality beyond a mere name, as "Doubting Thomas" (20:27 etc).
- Jesus refers to himself with metaphoric "I am" saying seven times (6:35) (8:12) (10:9) (10:11) (11:25) (14:6) (15:1)
- Two "signs" are numbered (2:11) (4:54)
- There are no stories about Satan, demons or exorcisms, no predictions of end times, no Sermon on the Mount, and no ethical or apocalyptic teachings.
- The hourly time is given: Greek text: about the tenth hour, translated as "four o'clock in the afternoon" [first hour is 6 AM, sundial time] (1:39)
- When the water at the pool of Bethsaida is moved by an angel it heals (5:3-4)
- Jesus says he is not going to the festival. However, after his brothers had gone, he too goes, but in secret for not all to see (7:8-10)
- According to the New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1970, the story of the adultress (8:1-11) is missing from the best early Greek manuscripts. When it does appear it is at different places: here, after (7:36) or at the end of this gospel. It can also be found at Luke 21:38.
- Jesus washes the disciples' feet (13:3-16)
- No other women are mentioned going to the tomb with Mary Magdalene. She seems to be alone. (20:1)
- Mary Magdalene visits the empty tomb twice. She believes Jesus' body has been stolen. The second time she sees two angels. They do not tell her Jesus is risen. They only ask why she is crying. Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener. He tells Mary not to touch (or cling to) him. (20:1-18) Christ, as our high priest, had to apply his own blood on the mercy seat in heaven (Hebrews 9:12). In the great "blood atonement chapter" of the Bible, Leviticus 16, we read in verse 7 that the high priest had to be alone in the tabernacle until he had made an atonement for the sins of the people. That Christ had fulfilled this duty is evident: That very evening, in the same chapter (20:28), Jesus asks Thomas to touch him and to place his fingers and hand in Jesus' still open wounds. At the sight of Jesus, Thomas gives an exclamation of faith but if he follows Jesus' direction, it is not explicit in the text.
- Some of the brethren thought the "disciple whom Jesus loved" would not die, and an explanation is given for his death. (21:23)
- The "disciple whom Jesus loved" wrote down things he had witnessed, and his testimony is asserted by a third party to be true (21:24)
- The beloved disciple (traditionally believed to be the Apostle John) is never named.

Chapters

- John 1
- John 2
- John 3
- John 4
- John 5
- John 6
- John 7

- John 8
- John 9
- John 10
- John 11
- John 12
- John 13
- John 14

- John 15
- John 16
- John 17
- John 18
- John 19
- John 20
- John 21

References

- Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John Anchor Bible, 1966, 1970
- Raymond E. Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple Paulist Press, 1979
- Robin M. Jensen, The Two Faces of Jesus, Bible Review Oct 2002, p42
- J.H. Bernard & A.H. McNeile, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary On The Gospel According To St. John. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1953.

External links

Online translations of the Gospel of John:
-
- [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/egerton.html The Egerton Gospel:] text. Compare it with Gospel of John Related articles:
- [http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-John.pdf A textual commentary on the Gospel of John] Detailed textcritical discussion of the 300 most important variants of the Greek text (PDF, 376 pages)
- [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/signs.html "Signs Gospel"]. a hypothetical written source for miracles in the Gospel of John: discussion
- [http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/fragment.htm Papyrus fragment of John at the John Rylands Library;] illustrated.
- [http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/johnpap.html John Rylands papyrus:] text, translation, illustration and a bibliography of the discussion
John John ko:요한 복음서 ja:ヨハネによる福音書

Jesus

Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from the Greek Ιησούς Χριστός ; transliteration: "Iesous Christos"; "Christ" not being a surname, but rather a title). He is also considered an important prophet in Islam. Jesus is accepted to have been a historical person, by both followers of the Christian tradition and most academics, who lived from about 8-4 BC/BCE to AD 29-36 CE. The primary sources regarding his life and teachings, which took written form some time after his death, are the four canonical Gospels from the New Testament of the Bible, which depict him – among many other things – as a Jewish Galilean preacher and healer who was often at odds with Jewish religious authorities, and who was crucified outside of Jerusalem during the rule of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. After his death, numerous followers spread his teachings, and within a few centuries Christianity emerged as a major religion distinct from Judaism. Beyond the historical information accepted by most secular scholars, the gospels make various additional claims about Jesus: that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible); that he was the son of God; that his mother Mary conceived Christ while a virgin; and that after his crucifixion he rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven. Most Christians hold that the Gospels also attribute divinity to Jesus; however, others hold that the Gospels are equivocal on the subject. Many Christians and some scholars believe that the accounts in the New Testament are historical facts, though others maintain that different parts have different degrees of accuracy, and a few scholars hold Jesus did not exist at all. In Islam, Jesus (called Isa) is considered one of God's most beloved and important prophets, a bringer of divine scripture, and also the messiah; although Muslims attach a different meaning to this term than Christians as they do not share the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus. The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, states unambiguously that Jesus neither died nor was crucified. The same passage, however, admits of multiple interpretations on his status after that event; the majority interpretation is that the Qur'an states that he was raised to heaven by God. (An alternate, and minority, interpretation, is that he was exalted among human beings.) Based on sayings attributed to Muhammad, Muslims believe Jesus will return to earth once it has become full of sin and injustice. Other religions also have different perspectives on Jesus, but do not place significant importance on his life and teachings.

Life and teachings, based upon the Gospels

Chronology

The most detailed accounts of Jesus' birth are contained in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. There is considerable debate about the details of Jesus' birth even among Christian scholars, and few scholars claim to know either the year or the date of his birth or of his death. Based on the accounts in the gospels of the shepherds' activities, the time of year depicted for Jesus' birth could be spring or summer. However, as early as 354, Roman Christians celebrated it following the December solstice in an attempt to replace the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Before then, Jesus' birth was generally celebrated on January 6 as part of the feast of Theophany, also known as Epiphany, which commemorated not only Jesus' birth but also his baptism by John in the Jordan River and possibly additional events in Jesus' life. In the 248th year of the Diocletian Era (based on Diocletian's ascension to the Roman throne), Dionysius Exiguus attempted to pinpoint the number of years since Jesus' birth, arriving at a figure of 753 years after the founding of Rome. Dionysius then set Jesus' birth as being December 25 1 ACN (for "Ante Christum Natum", or "before the birth of Christ"), and assigned AD 1 to the following year—thereby establishing the system of numbering years from the birth of Jesus: Anno Domini (which translates as "in the year of the Lord"). This system made the then current year 532, and almost two centuries later it won acceptance and became the established calendar in Western civilization due to its championing by the Venerable Bede. However, based on a lunar eclipse that Josephus reports shortly before the death of Herod the Great, the birth of Christ would have been some time before the year 4 BC/BCE. This estimate itself relies on the historicity of the story in the Gospel of Matthew of the Massacre of the Innocents under the orders of Herod — an event mentioned nowhere else in contemporaneous accounts. Having fewer sources and being further removed in time from the authors of the New Testament, establishing a reliable birth date now is particularly difficult. The exact date of Jesus' death is also unclear. The Gospel of John depicts the crucifixion just before the Passover festival on Friday 14 Nisan, called the Quartodeciman, whereas the synoptic gospels describe the Last Supper, immediately before Jesus' arrest, as the Passover meal on Friday 15 Nisan. Further, the Jews followed a lunisolar calendar with phases of the moon as dates, complicating calculations of any exact date in a solar calendar. According to John P. Meier's A Marginal Jew, allowing for the time of the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate and the dates of the Passover in those years, his death can be placed most probably on April 7, 30 or April 3, 33.

Family and early life

33 According to the Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin, via the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Luke gives an account of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the son of God ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201:26-28&version=31 Luke 1:26-28]). Catholics call this the Annunciation. Joseph, Mary's betrothed husband, appears only in stories of Jesus' childhood; this is generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry. Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources that are now lost) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni). However, Jerome argued that they were Jesus' cousins, which the Greek word for "brother" used in the gospels would allow. This was based on the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin, thus having no biological children before or after Jesus. Luke's gospel records that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36). The Bible, however, does not reveal exactly how Mary and Elizabeth were related. Jesus' childhood home is represented as Nazareth in Galilee. Aside from a flight to Egypt in infancy to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents, all other events in the Gospels are set in ancient Israel. Only one incident between his infancy and his adult life, the Finding in the Temple, is mentioned in the canonical gospels, although New Testament apocrypha go into these details, some quite extensively. For most Christians, only the virgin birth and the Incarnation itself are major articles of faith for this period of time before Jesus begins his ministry. Muslims also believe in the virgin birth, but aside from that, few non-Christians believe in either, and look upon stories of the virgin birth as mythological or indicating that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock.

Later life

Incarnation.]] According to Christian belief, just after he was baptized by his kinsman John the Baptist Jesus began his public teaching. According to the Gospel of Luke, he was about thirty years old at the time. Jesus used a variety of methods in his teaching, such as parables and metaphors. He frequently taught, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Some of his most famous teachings are in the Sermon on the Mount, which also contains the beatitudes. His parables (or stories with a deep or metaphorical meaning) include the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. Jesus had a number of disciples. His closest followers were twelve apostles. According to the New Testament, Jesus also performed various miracles in the course of his ministry, including healings, exorcisms, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus frequently put himself in opposition to the Jewish religious leaders including the Pharisees and Sadducees. His teaching castigated the Pharisees primarily for their legalism and hypocrisy, although he also had followers among the religious leaders such as Nicodemus. Jesus was also known as a social reformer, and because of the controversial view that he was the Jewish Messiah Jesus' preachings included the forgiveness of sin, life after death, and resurrection of the body. Jesus also preached the imminent end of the current era of history, or even the literal end of the world; in this sense he was an apocalyptic preacher. Some interpretations of the Gospels, particularly amongst Protestants, suggest that Jesus opposed stringent interpretations of Jewish law, supporting the spirit more than the letter of the law. It is commonly thought that Jesus preached for a period of three years, but this is never mentioned explicitly in any of the four gospels, and some interpretations of the Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year; to achieve consistency with the Gospel of John, one theory suggests Jesus' public ministry took approximately one year. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his ministry is usually associated with the Passover Feast, but some scholars point out that details of the entry, such as the Hosanna shout, the waving of palm fronds, and the proclamation of a king, are more consistent with the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkoth, than with Passover.This is likely because although the triumphal entry occurred around the time of Passover, the people reacted to it as if it were Sukkoth to celebrating the coming of a political messiah, as they had for Judah Macabee. Such celebration would be wiewed by Rome as an act of defiance, because it was associated with an earlier rebellion against the Greeks. Jesus however staged no such political rebellion, regardless of people's expectations.

Arrest, trial and execution

Judah Macabee]] Christian belief holds that Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival, and created a disturbance at the Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers there. He was subsequently arrested on the orders of the Sanhedrin and the high priest, Joseph Caiaphas for blasphemy, because he claimed to be God. He was identified to the guards by one of his apostles, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus by a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, after which another apostle, Peter, used a sword to attack one of the captors. After his arrest, Jesus' apostles went into hiding. Jesus was condemned for blasphemy by the Sanhedrin and turned over to the Romans for execution, on the charge of sedition, the usual penalty for which was a humiliating death by crucifixion. According to the gospels, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate ruled that Jesus was not guilty of any civil crime and then, following what the Bible says was a Passover tradition, offered the crowd a choice of which prisoner to free — Jesus of Nazareth, or an insurrectionist named Jesus Barabbas. To his chagrin, the crowd chose to free Barabbas. According to all four gospels, Pilate then ordered Jesus to be crucified with a charge placed atop the cross (called the titulus crucis) which read "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". (The titulus crucis is often written as INRI, the Latin acronym.) The gospels further state that after Jesus died on the cross, his followers were allowed to take his body down and place it in a tomb

Resurrection and Ascension

Latin by Matthias Grünewald.]] In accordance with the four canonical gospel accounts Christians believe that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. This article of faith is referred to in Christian terminology as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and each year at Easter (on a Sunday) it is commemorated and celebrated by most groups who consider themselves Christians. No one was a witness to the resurrection. However, the women who had witnessed the entombment and the closure of the tomb with a great stone, found it empty when they arrived on the third day to anoint the body. The synoptic gospel accounts further state that an angel was waiting at the tomb to explain to them that Jesus had been resurrected, though the Gospel according to John makes no mention of this encounter. The sight of the same angel had apparently left the guards unconscious (cf. Matt 28:2–4) that, according to Matthew 27:62–66, the high priests and Pharisees, with Pilate's permission, had posted in front of the tomb to prevent the body from being stolen by Jesus' disciples. Mark 16:9 says that Mary Magdalene was the first to whom Jesus appeared very early that morning. John 20:11–18 states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus—even by his voice—until he called her by her name. The Gospel accounts and the Acts of the Apostles tell of several appearances of Jesus to various people in various places over a period of forty days before he ascended into heaven. Just hours after his resurrection he appeared to two travelers on the road to Emmaus. To his assembled disciples he showed himself on the evening after his resurrection, but Thomas was absent, though he was present when Jesus repeated his visit to them a week later. Thereafter he went to Galilee and showed himself to several of his disciples by the lake and on the mountain; and they were present when he returned to Bethany and was lifted up to heaven and a cloud concealed him from their sight. The resurrection of Jesus is almost universally denied by those who do not follow the Christian religion. Most Christians—even those who do not hold to the literal truth of everything in the canonical gospel accounts—accept the New Testament presentation of the Resurrection as a historical account of an actual event central to their faith. Therefore, belief in the resurrection is one of the most distinctive elements of Christian faith; and defending the historicity of the resurrection is usually a central issue of Christian apologetics. However, some liberal Christians do not accept that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, or that he still lives bodily (e.g., John Shelby Spong, Tom Harpur). What is more interesting to note in context of the resurrection story was the manner in which the desciples died years later under the Roman Empire. Some were roasted, had their flesh flayed or even were mauled by wild beasts. None relented, even unto death, their claim that Christ was indeed resurrected and who he claimed to be. Either they were all mad men plagued by demented twisted ideals or they had found a truth so real they were prepared to die quite violently and painfully for.

Legacy

Tom Harpurd Jesus of Nazareth to the people of Jerusalem]] According to most Christian interpretations of the Bible, the theme of Jesus' preaching was that of repentance and grace. During his public ministry Jesus extensively trained twelve Apostles to continue after his departure his leadership of the many who had begun to follow him mainly in the towns and villages throughout Galilee, Samaria, and the Decapolis. Most Christians hold that Jesus' miracles were literally true, not allegory, and that the Apostles gained the power to perform similar miracles and healings on Jews and Gentiles alike after they had been empowered by the Holy Spirit of Truth (to pneuma tēs alētheias, John 14:17, 26; Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8, 2:4) that Jesus had promised the Father would send them after his departure—a promise that according to Acts 2:4 was fulfilled at Pentecost, the Jewish feast that, in addition to other Scriptural events, commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses. For Christians, the legacy Jesus left was one of sacrifice; they believe that Jesus was sent by God to die as a sacrifice in place of all humanity. Christians hold that this sacrifice had to take place because all man is born into a nature of sin (they claim, based on scripture, that God's penalty for sin is death and separation from God) so God sent his Son to die in their place. Christians believe Jesus' body was resurrected and ascended into heaven, so they believe that none of Jesus' body is on earth. The only body that remains of Christ on earth is figurative and embodied in the Church. The church is often referred to as the "body of Christ". Non-Christians generally reject these claims. Ironically (given Jesus's Jewish identity, and profession of love), for some the legacy of Jesus was a long history of Christian anti-Semitism (of course, always with exceptions), although in the wake of the Holocaust many Christian groups have gone to considerable lengths to reconcile with Jews and to promote inter-faith dialogue and mutual respect. This was more prevalent during the medieval reign of the Roman Catholic Church and in modern times considered to be the view of and extremely small minority. For others, Christianity has often been linked to European colonialism (see British Empire, Portuguese Empire, Spanish Empire, French colonial empire, Dutch colonial empire); conversely, Christians have often found themselves as oppressed minorities outside of Europe and the Americas. Other legacies include the religions of Christianity and their churches, the adoption of the cross as a symbol, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Anno Domini method of reckoning years, and celebrations at Christmas and Easter.

Religious perspectives

Jesus has an important role in the two largest world religions, Christianity and Islam. Most other religions, however, do not consider Jesus to have been a supernatural or holy being. Some of these religions, like Buddhism, do not take any official stance on Jesus' life, while others, such as those practicing Jesus's own religion at the time of his death, Judaism, generally reject claims of Jesus's divinity and regard him as a false prophet.

Christian views

Judaism depiction of Saviour Not Made by Hands, the most popular iconography of Jesus in Eastern Orthodoxy.]] Christians believe in and follow what they believe to be the teachings of Jesus. However, Christianity quite naturally has a more specific and involved meaning, as most Christians hold similar beliefs regarding Jesus and his life that are largely rejected by non-Christians. Generally speaking, most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, part of a trinity of three persons of God, and the Messiah, who came to earth to save mankind from sin and death through his proxy sacrifice. Most believe Jesus lived a perfect life and that is why his death on a cross, called the crucifixion, counts as a sacrifice for mankind. According to Christian tradition the disobeying of God's command by the first man Adam caused all mankind to suffer the consequences of sin entering the world. Scriptures often refer to death as "seperation from God" and to sin being something that God the Father cannot tolerate. As a result of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, all mankind who believe in Jesus being God's only son and in his resurrection, may have eternal life. Most believe that after Jesus's death he rose from the grave on the third day and forty days after that ascended to Heaven. There are many differing views within Christian groups as to whether or not Jesus ever claimed divinity. The majority of Christian laypeople, theologians, and clergy hold that the Bible clearly states Jesus both to be divine and to claim divinity in many passages. Most also believe that Jesus's resurrection is additional proof that he is God. However, some people (both Christian and non-Christian) maintain that there are passages in the New Testament that clearly have Jesus stating that he was not equal with God, and that other passages are ambiguous about such claims. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains that Jesus is the very same as Jehovah or Yahweh of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible but is distinct from God the Father; that he is the Creator of the Universe; that he spent the interval between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection organizing a Mission in the Spirit World for the righteous spirits to teach the gospel to those in darkness; and that he visited both the inhabitants of the ancient Americas and other locations throughout the world after his Resurrection.

Islamic views

In Islam, Jesus is known as Isa, and is one of God's highest-ranked and most-beloved prophets. Like Christian writings, the Qur'an holds that Jesus was born without a biological father by the will of God, that he could perform miracles, and that he will one day return to the world to rid it of evil. However, unlike Christians, Muslims do not consider Jesus to have been the son of God, and do not believe that he died on the cross. Instead, the Qur'an states that his death was only an illusion (done by God) to deceive his enemies, and that Jesus ascended bodily to heaven. Muslims believe he will return to the world in the flesh with Imam Mahdi to defeat the Dajjal (Antichrist-like figure, translated as "Deceiver") once the world has become filled with sin, deception and injustice, and then live out the rest of his natural life. Muslims also believe that Jesus received a gospel from God (called the Injeel) that corresponds to the Christian New Testament, but that it and the Old Testament have both been changed by mankind over time as such that they no longer accurately represent God's original message to mankind. In Muslim traditions, Jesus lived a perfect life of nonviolence, showing kindness to humans and animals (similar to the other Islamic prophets), without material possessions and abstaining totally from alcohol and from the flesh of animals. The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam believes that Jesus survived the crucifixion and later travelled to India, where he lived and died as a prophet under the name of Yuz Asaf.

Jewish views

Judaism rejects both the Christian belief that Jesus was the Messiah and the Muslim belief that he was a prophet. Judaism states that there were no prophets after the prophet Malachi, and still awaits the coming of the Messiah. Jewish belief does not completely reject all of the historical information contained in Gospels, but does reject all of the confessions by early Christian adherents, especially Paul.

Eastern religions

Hindu beliefs in Jesus vary from those who consider him to have been just a normal man, or even purely a fable, to those who believe that he was an avatar of God. A large number of Hindus consider Jesus to have been a wise guru or yogi, some even suggesting that he spent his "lost years" learning various Hindu beliefs in India. The Hindutva historian P.N. Oak has even claimed that Jesus was in fact Krishna, and that Christianity originated as a form of his worship. Many in the Surat Shabd Yoga tradition regard Jesus as a Satguru. Mahatma Gandhi considered Jesus one of his main teachers and inspirations for Nonviolent Resistance. Although Buddhism in general attributes no spiritual significance to Jesus, some Buddhists believe that Jesus may have been a Bodhisattva, one who has dedicated his or her future to the happiness of all beings. Some Buddhists also interpret Jesus through Zen Buddhism, sometimes basing their perspective on the Gospel of Thomas. The Bahá'í Faith considers Jesus to be one of many "Manifestations" (or prophets) of God, with both human and divine stations.

Negative views

Some religions consider Jesus to be a false prophet. Mandaeanism regards Jesus as a deceiving prophet of the false Jewish god Adunay, and an opponent of the good prophet John the Baptist—whom they nonetheless believe to have baptized him. Some Satanists consider Jesus to have been the son or a follower of Satan, or Satan himself, but most do not hold any spiritual beliefs regarding Jesus.

Other Views

The Ebionites believed that Jesus was a great prophet and the Messiah, but not divine. They rejected the Epistles of Paul, and asserted that Jesus did not consider the Biblical laws to be abrogated, but instead wanted his followers to abide by them. Some Ebionites claimed the leadership of Saint James, the Brother of Jesus, but no historical connection between James and the sect has been substantiated. The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. with some representatives (such as A Course In Miracles) going so far as to trance-channel him. Many recognize him as a "great teacher" (or "Ascended Master") similar to Buddha, and teach that Christhood is something that all may attain. At the same time, many New Age teachings, such as reincarnation, appear to reflect a certain discomfort with traditional Christianity. Numerous New Age subgroups claim Jesus as a supporter, often incorporating contrasts with or protests against the Christian mainstream. Thus, for example, Theosophy and its offshoots have Jesus studying esotericism in the Himalayas or Egypt during his "lost years".

Historicity

Egypt image of Jesus is one of many in which a sun cross halo is used. Such depictions are characteristic of Eastern Orthodox iconography.]] Most modern scholars hold that the works describing Jesus were initially communicated by oral tradition, and were not committed to writing until several decades after Jesus' crucifixion. The earliest extant texts which refer to Jesus are Paul's letters, which are usually dated from the mid-1st century. Paul saw Jesus only in visions, but he claimed that they were divine revelations and hence authoritative (1 Galatians 11-12). The earliest extant texts describing Jesus in any detail were the four New Testament Gospels. These texts, being part of the Biblical canon, have received much more analysis and acceptance from Christian sources than other possible sources for information on Jesus. Many apocryphal texts have also surfaced detailing events in Jesus' life and teachings, chief among them the Gospel of Thomas, a "sayings gospel" or logia consisting primarily of phrases attributed to Jesus. Other New Testament apocrypha, generally considered less important, include the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel of Mary, the Infancy Gospels, the Gospel of Peter, the Unknown Berlin Gospel, the Naassene Fragment, the Secret Gospel of Mark, the Egerton Gospel, the Oxyrhynchus Gospels and the Fayyum Fragment.

Earlier texts?

Some texts with even earlier historical or mythological information on Jesus are speculated to have existed prior to the Gospels, though none are extant. Based on the unusual similarities and differences (see synoptic problem) between the Synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark and Luke, the first three canonical gospels—many Biblical scholars have suggested that oral tradition and logia (such as the Gospel of Thomas and the theoretical Q document) probably played a strong role in initially passing down stories of Jesus, and may have inspired some of the Synoptic Gospels. Specifically, many scholars believe that the Q document and the Gospel of Mark were the two sources used for the gospels of Matthew and Luke; however, other theories, such as the older Augustinian hypothesis, continue to hold sway with some Biblical scholars. Another theoretical document is the Signs Gospel, believed to have been a source for the Gospel of John. There is little consensus concerning how and when any of these documents were circulated, if they were at all. The ecumenical council meetings in the 4th century that discussed which works should and should not be included in the canon were largely unconcerned with modern historical sensibilities, utilizing few techniques of objective textual analysis. Instead, their discussions generally tended to center upon theology, rather than upon historicity. However, noted scholars F.F. Bruce, Bruce Metzger and others argue that some historical details were taken into consideration regarding the New Testament canon. It may be surmised that the early church leaders took for granted that historicity was not an issue to be debated, any more than debating the historicity of the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution would be major issues today. In addition, Bible scholar Bruce Metzger wrote regarding the formation of the canonical New Testament: :"Although the fringes of the emerging canon remained unsettled for generations, a high degree of unanimity concerning the greater part of the New Testament was attained among the very diverse and scattered congregations of believers not only throughout the Mediterranean world, but also over an area extending from Britain to Mesopotamia."

Questions of reliability

As a result of the many-decade time gap between the writing of the Gospels and the events they describe the accuracy of all early texts claiming the existence of Jesus or details of Jesus' life have been disputed by various parties. The authors of the gospels are traditionally thought to have been witnesses to the events included. After the original oral stories were written down, they were transcribed, and later translated into other languages. However, several Biblical historians have responded to claims of the unreliability of the gospel accounts by pointing out that historical documentation is often biased and second-hand, and frequently dates from several decades after the events described. Even among those who believe that Jesus existed, however, there are still numerous divisions over the historical accuracy of the canonical gospels. Some say that the Gospel accounts are neither objective nor accurate, since they were written or compiled by his followers and seem to exclusively portray a positive, idealized view of Jesus. Those who have a naturalistic view of history, as a general rule, do not believe in divine intervention or miracles, such as the resurrection of Jesus mentioned by the Gospels. One method used to estimate the factual accuracy of stories in the gospels is known as the "criterion of embarrassment", which holds that stories about events with embarrassing aspects (such as the denial of Jesus by Peter) would likely not have been included if not true.

External influences on gospel development

A minority of scholars believe that the gospel accounts of Jesus have little or no historical basis. At least in part, this is because there are many similarities between stories about Jesus and contemporary myths of pagan godmen such as Mithras, Apollo, Attis, Horus and Osiris-Dionysus, leading to conjectures that the pagan myths were adopted by some authors of early accounts of Jesus to form a syncretism with Christianity. Some Christian authors, such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, believed that such myths were created by ancient pagans with vague and imprecise foreknowledge of the Gospels. While these connections are disputed by many, it is nevertheless true that many elements of Jesus' story as told in the Gospels have parallels in pagan mythology, where miracles such as virgin birth were well-known. Scholars such as A. N. Sherwin-White, FF Bruce, John Wenham, Gary Habermas and others argue for a high degree of historical reliability of the key New Testament events or the New Testament as a whole (see: Resurrection of Jesus for details). Prominent liberal scholar John A.T. Robinson argued for early dates of the entire New Testament and ascribed many of the key New Testament texts to their traditional authors.

Notes

# The Gospels of the Bible, [http://www.biblegateway.com/ BibleGateway.com]. # Daniel Gaztambide (2005), [http://www.aramaicnt.org/site/index.php?mode=article&entry=28 "So Sayeth The Lord... According to Who?"]. # Stephen Voorwinde, [http://www.pastornet.net.au/rtc/canon.htm "The formation of the New Testament"], Patornet. Accessed October 25, 2005. # F. F. Bruce, New Testament Documents: Are they reliable?, [http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/ffbruce/ntdocrli/ntdocc03.htm "Chapter 3: The Canon of the New Testament"] (June, 1982), ISBN 087784691X, Inter-Varsity Press. # Coey Keating (December 11, 2005), [http://www.ntgreek.org/SeminaryPapers/ChurchHistory/Criteria%20for%20Development%20of%20the%20NT%20Canon%20in%20First%20Four%20Centuries.pdf "Criteria for development of the New Testament canon in the first four centuries of the Christian Church"], Fuller Theological Seminary. # Bruce Metzger (1987), The New Testament Canon, page 254. # Josh McDowell (1992), [http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html "Evidence for the Resurrection"]. # F.F. Bruce (1959), [http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/ffbruce/ntdocrli/ntdocont.htm "THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS Are they Reliable?"]. # Gary Habermas (2001), [http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/habermas-nt.html "Why I Believe The New Testament Is Historically Reliable"]. # John Robinson

External links

Religious views
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08374c.htm Jesus Christ Catholic Encyclopedia article]
- [http://www.LatinVulgate.com/christverse.aspx Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ] - The complete sayings of Jesus Christ in parallel English and Latin
- [http://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Jesus%20-%20An%20Islamic%20Perspective.html An Islamic perspective on Jesus]
- [http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2001/11/15/article_02.htm Jehovah's Witnesses' perspective]
- [http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,810-1,00.html Latter-day Saint (Mormon) beliefs about Jesus]
- [http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1988.htm/ensign%20november%201988.htm/what%20think%20ye%20of%20christ.htm What think ye of Christ?] (Mormon)
- [http://www.uua.org/pamphlet/3040.html Unitarian Universalist Views of Jesus]: prophet; dissident; one of many Christs
- [http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/topic/christ.html The Historic & Reformation View of Jesus Christ]: Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria
- [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/mead.htm Jesus in the Jewish tradition]
- [http://www.christnotes.org/dictionary.php?dict=sbd&id=2398 Jesus Christ] - Smith's Bible Dictionary article Historical and skeptical views
- [http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/history/jesus.htm Overview of the Life of Jesus] A summary of New Testament accounts.
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/ From Jesus to Christ] -- A Frontline documentary on Jesus and early Christianity.
- [http://www.Jesus-Institute.org The Words and Life of Historical Jesus] by Jesus Institute
- [http://www.uncc.edu/jdtabor/index.html The Jewish Roman World of Jesus]
- [http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1993/v50-3-article8.htm Historical context of Jesus' time]
- [http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/mine/jesus.htm Jewish sects during Jesus' time]
- [http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01031997_p-29_en.html Christ and the Other Religions]
- [http://pages.ca.inter.net/~oblio/jhcjp.htm The Jesus Puzzle]
- [http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/jesus.html Skeptic's Guide to Jesus]
- [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/jesus.htm Who Was the Real Jesus?] Seemingly unique compilation from a theosophical point of view. Category:1st century BC births ko:예수 그리스도 ms:Yesus Kristus ja:イエス・キリスト simple:Jesus th:เยซู คริสต์ zh-cn:耶穌基督 zh-tw:耶穌基督

Synoptic Gospel

The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. They often recount the same stories about Jesus of Nazareth, though not always with all the same details and at the same length, but mostly following the same sequence and to a remarkable extent using the same words. The term synoptic is derived from a combination of the Greek words συν (syn = together) and οψις (opsis = seeing) to indicate that the contents of these three Gospels can be viewed side-by-side, whether in a vertical parallel column synopsis, or a horizontal synoptic alignment. Already the early Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century) had devised a scheme that enabled scholars to find parallel texts; but a synopsis in the modern understanding did not come into existence until the 18th century through the labours of Johann Jakob Griesbach. Griesbach used it to study and demonstrate a dependence of Mark and Luke on Matthew, a hypothesis that, while going back to the earliest traditions of the Church, in refined forms has been gaining supporters among scholars since the beginning of the 20th century. The majority of their colleagues, however, on internal evidence are proponents of the modern hypothesis of the priority of Mark. Furthermore, one source hypothesis argues that all three Synoptic gospels used a common source referred to as the Q Manuscript, although as yet no supporting manuscript evidence has come to light. The Gospel according to John has a number of points of contact with the three synoptic Gospels, but differs considerably from them in content; and therefore not all Gospel Synopses display it. Views about the dating of all four Gospels vary greatly, from about 60–70 CE until the end of the first century.

Agapē

:This article is about a type of love. For the English adjective, see the Wiktionary definition of agape Agapē (in Greek written αγάπη; pronounced /aga̍pe/ or /a̍gape/) is the Greek word for divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, thoughtful love. Greek philosophers at the time of Plato used it in a way that suggested a universal, as opposed to a personal, love; this could mean love of truth, or love of humanity. The term was used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God's love for man, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other. It is a prominent term in the works of C.S. Lewis. Agape were love-feasts among the primitive Christians in commemoration of the Last Supper, and in which they gave each other the kiss of peace as token of Christian brotherhood.

Christian love

Agape is Christian love, "charity" (1 Corinthians 13:1–8). Tertullian, in his 2nd century defense of Christians remarks how Christian love attracted pagan notice: "What marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our lovingkindness. 'Only look' they say, 'look how they love one another.'" (Apology 39). Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Hippolytus of Rome (second century) use Eucharist and Agape as synonyms (cf.1 Corinthians 11); in Jude 12, the "love feasts" are most naturally understood to be the combined Agape–Eucharists. The Agape (in Didache, 70–110) is a Jewish meal (Chaburah) Christianized as in the "new meal" of Christ’s Kingdom and Love. Today the term Agape refers to the Easter Sunday’s Vespers (held either in the morning or the afternoon) which is also called the Second Resurrection Service. During this Service the Gospel reading relating to the first appearance of the Resurrected Christ to His disciples is read in many languages besides Greek.

Descriptions of Love in the New Testament

The New Testament provides a number of definitions and examples of love.

The greatest Commandment

Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (Gospel of John 13:34-35) He went on to say, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Gospel of Matthew 22:37-41)

Love for enemies

Jesus also said:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Thus, agape, as a form of love, is both unconditional and volitional, i.e., it is non-discriminating with no pre-conditions and is something that one decides to do.

The example of Paul and Silas

One of the best examples of Love comes from the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, verses 19-34:

The owners of a slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

Paul's definition of Love

Paul described Love as follows: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (First Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter 13, verses 4-8a). It is very interesting to note that in the original Greek language text that these descriptions of agape are all in verbs, a matter of action, although most languages, such as English, will need to translate this using adjectives. To gain a better understanding of Paul's definition read all of 1 Corinthians 13.

John's definition of God

John equated God with Love in his first letter, (1st John): "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8 KJV)

Origin of the Agape

So far as the Jerusalem community was concerned, the common meal appears to have sprung out of the koinōnía or communion that characterized the first days of the Christian church (compare Act_1:14; Act_2:1 etc.). The religious meals familiar to Jews - the Passover being the great type - would make it natural In Jerusalem to give expression by means of table fellowship to the sense of brotherhood, and the community of goods practiced by the infant church (Act_2:44; Act_4:32) would readily take the particular form of a common table at which the wants of the poor were supplied out of the abundance of the rich (Act_6:1). The presence of the Agape in the Greek church of Corinth was no doubt due to the initiative of Paul, who would hand on the observances associated with the Lord's Supper just as he had received them from the earlier disciples; but participation in a social meal would commend itself very easily to men familiar with the common meals that formed a regular part of the procedure at meetings of those religious clubs and associations which were so numerous at that time throughout the Greek-Roman world.

Relation to the Eucharist

In the opinion of the great majority of scholars the Agape was a meal at which not only bread and wine but all kinds of viands were used, a meal which had the double purpose of satisfying hunger and thirst and giving expression to the sense of Christian brotherhood. At the end of this feast, bread and wine were taken according to the Lord's command, and after thanksgiving to God were eaten and drunk in remembrance of Christ and as a special means of communion with the Lord Himself and through Him with one another. The Agape was thus related to the Eucharist as Christ's last Passover to the Christian rite which He grafted upon it. It preceded and led up to the Eucharist, and was quite distinct from it. In opposition to this view it has been strongly urged by some modern critical scholars that in the apostolic age the Lord's Supper was not distinguished from the Agape, but that the Agape itself from beginning to end was the Lord's Supper which was held in memory of Jesus. It seems fatal to such an idea, however, that while Paul makes it quite evident that bread and wine were the only elements of the memorial rite instituted by Jesus (1Co_11:23-29), the abuses which had come to prevail at the social gatherings of the Corinthian church would have been impossible in the case of a meal consisting only of bread and wine (compare 1Co_11:21, 1Co_11:33) Moreover, unless the Eucharist in the apostolic age had been discriminated from the common meal, it would be difficult to explain how at a later period the two could be found diverging from each other so completely.

Separation from the Eucharist

In the Didache (circa 100 ad) there is no sign as yet of any separation. The direction that the second Eucharistic prayer should be offered “after being filled” (x.1) appears to imply that a regular meal had immediately preceded the observance of the sacrament. In the Ignatian Epistles (circa 110 ad) the Lord's Supper and the Agape are still found in combination (Ad Smyrn viii.2). It has sometimes been assumed that Pliny's letter to Trajan (circa 112 ad) proves that the separation had already taken place, for he speaks of two meetings of the Christians in Bithynia, one before the dawn at which they bound themselves by a “sacramentum” or oath to do no kind of crime, and another at a later hour when they partook of food of an ordinary and harmless character (Ep x.96). But as the word “sacramentum” cannot be taken here as necessarily or even probably referring to the Lord's Supper, the evidence of this passage is of little weight. When we come to Justin Martyr (circa 150 ad) we find that in his account of church worship he does not mention the Agape at all, but speaks of the Eucharist as following a service which consisted of the reading of Scripture, prayers and exhortation (Apol, lxvii); so that by his time the separation must have taken place. Tertullian (circa 200 ad) testifies to the continued existence of the Agape (Apol, 39), but shows clearly that in the church of the West the Eucharist was no longer associated with it (De Corona, 3). In the East the connection appears to have been longer maintained (see Bigg, Christian Platonists of Alexandria, 102ff), but by and by the severance became universal; and though the Agape continued for long to maintain itself as a social function of the church, it gradually passed out of existence or was preserved only as a feast of charity for the poor.

Reasons for the Separation

Various influences appear to have cooperated in this direction. Trajan's enforcement of the old law against clubs may have had something to do with it (compare Pliny as above), but a stronger influence probably came from the rise of a popular suspicion that the evening meals of the church were scenes of licentious revelry and even of crime. The actual abuses which already meet us in the apostolic age (1Co_11:20; Jud_1:12), and which would tend to multiply as the church grew in numbers and came into closer contact with the heathen world, might suggest the advisability of separating the two observances. But the strongest influence of all would come from the growth of the ceremonial and sacerdotal spirit by which Christ's simple institution was slowly turned into a mysterious priestly sacrifice. To Christ Himself it had seemed natural and fitting to institute the Supper at the close of a social meal. But when this memorial Supper had been transformed into a repetition of the sacrifice of Calvary by the action of the ministering priest, the ascetic idea became natural that the Eucharist ought to be received fasting, and that it would be sacrilegious to link it on to the observances of an ordinary social meal.

Sources

- The New Testament of the Bible, especially the Gospels.
- The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis
- The Greek New Testament, Aland, United Bible Societies
- A Textual Commentary on the Greek NT, Metzger
- The Apostolic Fathers, Lightfoot, Harmer, Holmes

Philia

Suffixes with the common part -phil- (-phile, -philia, -philic) are used to specify some kind of attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something. They are antonymic to suffixes -phob-. Phil- may also be used as a prefix with a similar meaning. Philia (φιλία) as a Greek word for love refers to brotherly love, including friendship and affection. This contrasts to the Greek terms Eros, or sexual/romantic love, and agapē, or detached, spiritual love. However, it should be noted that English usage differs in some cases from the etymological use, and several of these words refer in English not to brotherly love but to sexual attraction. The suffix "-philia" refers to the attraction itself. The suffix "-phile" (or, in a few cases, -philiac) applies to someone or something with one of these attractions. The suffix "-philic" describes the property of being attracted to something. There are five major areas of usage of this suffix: biology, sexology, chemistry/physics, hobbies, and attitude to specific nations, with occasional coinage in other areas.

Biology

- acidophilia/acidophile: Preference of acidic conditions
- alkaliphilia/alkaliphile: Preference of alkaline environments
- ammophilia/ammophile: Preference of sand and sandy places
- anthophilia/anthophile/anthophilic: Attraction to flowers
- cryophilia/cryophilic/cryophile: Preference for cold environments, climates, objects and low temperatures; e.g., Protea cryophila (Snow Protea).
- entomophilous: Adapted for pollination by insects
- Extremophilia/Extremophile: Preference of living extremal conditions for some microorganisms
- Geophilia/Geophilic/Geophile Referring to organisms that prefer the soil
- halophilia/halophile: Attraction/attracted to salt or salt-water
- heliophilia/heliophile: Attraction/attracted to sunlight
- hydrophilia: Attraction to water
- Hyperthermophilia/Hyperthermophile/Hyperthermophilic: Describing organisms that thrive in extremely hot environments
- limnophilia/limnophile/limnophilic: Preference of ponds or marshes
- lithophilia/lithophile/litophilic: Preference/affinity to stones
- mesophilia/mesophile: Preference of moderate temperatures in microorganisms
- Microaerophilia/Microaerophile/Microaerophilic: of organisms that can tolerate or require environments containing low levels of oxygen
- Myrmecophilia: in names of orchids of genus myrmecophila, "love of ants"
- Nemophilia: Love of the woods/forests, in the name of the genus Nemophilia of flowers
- nyctophilia: A preference for darkness or night.
- Ombrophilia/ombrophile: Affinity/affined to large amounts of rainfall
- petrophilia/petrophile/petrophilic: Preference of living or spending time in rocky areas
- photophilia/photophile/photophilic: Preference of living or spending time in lighted conditions
- psammophile: A plant loving sandy areas
- psychrophilia/Psychrophile: Preference of cold temperatures
- rheophilia: Preference of living in running water
- rhizophilia: Preference of living on roots
- thermophilia: Love of high temperatures; thriving in high temperatures (e.g. microbes)
- tropophilia/ tropophile/ tropophilous: Preference of seasonal extremes of climate
- xerophilia: Love of living or spending time in very dry conditions
- xylophilia: Love of wood

Chemistry/physics

- chromophilous: Staining easily
- electrophile: A substance having an affinity for electrons or negative charge
- lipophilic: A substance that is attracted to lipids, as in cell membranes.
- nucleophile: A substance having an affinity for positive charge; antyonym of electrophile.

Hobbies

- bibliophilia: Love of books
- biophilia: Love of nature
- glossophilia: Love of languages
- hippophilia/hippophile: Attraction/attracted to horses
- Hoplophilia/Hoplophile: Attraction/attracted to firearms and weaponry
- logophilia: Love of words - Logophiles may be interested in word games, such as crosswords, or Scrabble, and in the extreme, derive enjoyment from reading things commonly given less notice, such as labels
- metrophilia: Love of the metro rail or subway systems
- neophilia: Love of the latest novelties and trends
- oenophilia: Love of wine
- ophiophilia: Love of snakes
- ornithophilia: Love of birds
- technophilia: Love of technology
- turophilia/turophile: Love of cheese / connoisseur of cheese

National

- Anglophile: a non-English person who is extremely fond of all things English. Antonymous term: Anglophobia
- Europhile: a person who wants to increase cooperation between governments within the European Union. Antonymous term: Euroscepticism
- Japanophile: a non-Japanese person with a strong interest in Japan or Japanese culture. Antonym: Japanophobia.
- Russophilia: Love of Russia and/or Russians. Antonym: Russophobia.

Sexology

- acrotomophilia: Love of amputees
- androphilia: Love of men
- andromimetophilia: Love of women dressed as men
- apodysophilia: Desire to undress, see also nudism
- asiaphilia: Love of Asian culture and/or women/men
- autogynephilia: Love of oneself as a woman
- coprophilia: Sexual pleasure from feces
- Ephebophilia: Sexual attraction towards adolescents
- forniphilia: Love of making furniture from humans in bondage.
- gerontophilia: Sexual attraction towards the elderly
- Gynophilia: Love of wome

John 21:15-19

Text of the passage

Analysis and commentary

Usage

References

John 21

Appendage

The appendage's appendage

See also

Gospel of John

Authorship and date

Sources

Handling of source material

Structure

Popular Passages in the Gospel

Characteristics of the Gospel of John

Other characteristics unique to John

Chapters

See also

References

External links

Jesus

Life and teachings, based upon the Gospels

Chronology

Family and early life

Later life

Arrest, trial and execution

Resurrection and Ascension

Legacy

Religious perspectives

Christian views

Islamic views

Jewish views

Eastern religions

Negative views

Other Views

Historicity

Earlier texts?

Questions of reliability

External influences on gospel development

Notes

Other topics pertaining to Jesus

See also

External links

Synoptic Gospel

See also

Agapē

Christian love

Descriptions of Love in the New Testament

The greatest Commandment

Love for enemies

The example of Paul and Silas

Paul's definition of Love

John's definition of God

Origin of the Agape

Relation to the Eucharist

Separation from the Eucharist

Reasons for the Separation

Sources

See also

Philia

Biology

Chemistry/physics

Hobbies

National

Sexology